Engine decking issue(help)

I've been watching this thread and it's been entertaining to be sure.

My opinion: CNC is nice, but as already stated it is not the be all, end all, do all. Many people who might call themselves "machinists", running a CNC machine may know little more about the machine they are operating than "start", "stop", "pause". Is the machine auto load tool change, or is it manual? How is the tooling handled and stored? Is it kept sharp? Admittedly, some of these questions pertain to old fashion equipment also.


My Dad was a staff manufacturing engineer for a defense contractor. One of his last projects before he retired was the machining of 3 castings about the size of a playmate cooler. Part of a Naval weapons system. I don't know how many operations were involved in machining these things though cycle time per casting was 6 1/2 hours in the beginning, he worked it down to 2 hours. THAT is what CNC is about, speed. You can talk about accuracy, give the guy spinning the dial a 6 place digital read out, tell him what number to hit at the 4th place and he will hit it every time, just not as fast.


Two of the most significant events of the 20th century were the result of someone spinning a dial by hand, and they are building "the bomb" and putting a man on the moon. Those events are what precipitated the improvements and innovations of modern manufacturing; don't forget though, "new" machines were made by "old" machines .

OMM, I hope your son stops and says a prayer to God, every time he powers up that machine, thanking him for the blind dumb luck that allowed him to buy that machine for $12,500.00, THAT is why he can deck a block for $200.00. There are a lot of shops that can't afford to pony up the $140,000.00 for a new machine, they just don't do that much business; your son couldn't do $200.00 deck jobs if he had to make payments on a $140,00.00 loan.